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Skill Development

A meta-skill that walks you through designing, writing, and validating Claude Code skills with a 6-step process and checklists.

Dev & CodingIntermediate★ 549⑂ 48AI score 7/10Last updated: Sep 16, 2026

What it does

  • Structure guidance: when to use references/, examples/, scripts/, assets/ and what belongs in each.
  • Trigger writing: rewrites frontmatter description in third person with concrete user phrases, with good/bad examples.
  • Progressive disclosure: enforces the three-level loading model (metadata → SKILL.md body at 1,500–2,000 words → bundled resources).
  • Style rules: imperative/infinitive voice, no second person.
  • 6-step creation process plus a final validation checklist covering structure, description quality, content, and testing.

Who it's for

  • Developers writing their first Claude Code skill
  • Anyone whose skill doesn't trigger reliably
  • Plugin authors bundling multiple skills for distribution
  • Maintainers whose SKILL.md has grown bloated

Examples

  1. "Create a skill for editing PDFs" → elicits use cases → proposes scripts/rotate_pdf.py → scaffolds directories → drafts SKILL.md.
  2. "My skill never activates" → rewrites the description in third person with specific trigger phrases.
  3. "My SKILL.md is 8,000 words" → splits detail into references/patterns.md and references/advanced.md while keeping the core lean.

· · · Install guide · · ·

Try it now, no install

Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.

Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tzachbon/smart-ralph/HEAD/.agents/skills/Skill Development/SKILL.md

What I want: (describe your task here)

If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.

↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.

Install in the Claude app (no terminal)
  1. Download the ZIP with the button below.
  2. In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
  3. Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.
↓ Download ZIP
Install in Claude Code

Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code

Install the skill I found on Claude Skill Mart.
Copy the .agents/skills/Skill Development folder from the GitHub repo tzachbon/smart-ralph into my ~/.claude/skills/skill-development/.
When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.

Install with a command instead

git clone https://github.com/tzachbon/smart-ralph.git /tmp/smart-ralph && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/skill-development && cp -r "/tmp/smart-ralph/.agents/skills/Skill Development/." ~/.claude/skills/skill-development/

⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.

  1. Open a terminal.
  2. Clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/tzachbon/smart-ralph.git /tmp/smart-ralph
  3. Create the target folder: mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/skill-development
  4. Copy the skill: cp -r "/tmp/smart-ralph/.agents/skills/Skill Development/." ~/.claude/skills/skill-development/
  5. Verify with ls ~/.claude/skills/skill-development — you should see SKILL.md.
  6. Restart Claude Code and ask "create a new skill" or "improve my skill description" to confirm it triggers.
  7. (Optional) For project-only use, copy into that project's .claude/skills/ instead of the home directory.
View source on GitHub ↗License: MIT